Activists demand better transport

Activists demand better transport

JAKARTA (JP): Discriminatory practices in the public transport
sector must give way to safe, reliable services during holiday
seasons, activists said yesterday.

Wahyu, a People's Transport Committee spokesman, said that the
public transport system fails to meet the needs of the majority
who, unlike officials, must jostle for tickets at bus and train
stations to reach their hometowns.

He cited overbooking, discriminatory service, poor roads, a
lack of punctuality and illegal levies as problems which have led
to a string of transportation disasters needlessly claiming the
lives of many innocent people.

"The elderly, pregnant, children and disabled are the victims
who are most affected by these unfair practices," he said.

In the annual rush home for the Feb. 9 and Feb. 10 Idul Fitri
holiday, poor transport services, accidents, flight cancellations
and extortion have reportedly been rife.

At Merak Port, West Java, nine people fainted Wednesday as
they jostled their way through a sea of travelers to the ferries.

One hundred and thirteen people were stranded in Jakarta after
the army Hercules airplanes their travel agent had promised to
take them to Bangka, South Sumatra, never showed up. They were
taken by a Merpati Nusantara Airlines aircraft yesterday.

Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said he knew of
travel agents and bus conductors overcharging passengers but the
government could do nothing because the victims had not filed
complaints.

Wahyu said flaws in existing legislation favored
transportation investors rather than consumers.

"Officials, who travel frequently, have access to tickets and
receive higher priority than the majority of consumers," he said.
He called for revisions to transportation policies,

Zumrotin K Soesilo of the Indonesian Consumers Agency said
officials' and business executives' special access to travel
agencies granted them access to comfortable, reliable trains,
buses and airplanes all year round.

Although the same prices apply to everyone, Zumrotin said
officials, including Armed Forces officers, receive special
allocations and convenient access to tickets provided by the
state-owned railway company, Perumka.

Perumka cannot even contemplate refusing a memo from the Armed
Forces to provide personnel with tickets, even though they might
not be used by the listed people, she said.

"These practices should no longer exist because the railway
company has become a state-owned firm", she said.

Zumrotin said her field observations showed a lack of disabled
facilities at terminals, except for specially made stairs -- and
even these were at times uneven -- for people to board trains.

The organization's executive secretary Indah Sukmaningsih
suggested that consumers cheated by unprofessional travel agents
should demand compensation and administrative sanctions for bad
services.

Indah said this applied to poor transportation services as
well as products found in gift baskets which contain expired
foodstuffs and damaged goods. (01)